After Death
by snowflakewriting
Summary: [YamiNoMatsueiSM] After dying for the last time from wounds gained in the last battle with Chaos, Usagi follows through with Serenity's wish and becomes a Shinigami to continue fighting to uphold peace. What foes lie in the darkness in wait of her?
1. Serenity and Usagi

Right... This is like the first Yami no Matsuei/SM fanfic like, ever. Unless it isn't. And if that's true... well, then. Tell me so I can read the other one!

Oh, and I don't own SM or YnM.

MMM

The first thing she noticed about the room was all of the colors. The walls and bedding were peach, normal for the hospital room it seemed to be; however, the small bed table and all of the walls were decorated with pictures, cards, and indoor plants of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Second thing she noticed was the wide window to the left of her bed, a plain wooden frame with a clean glass plate. Of course, it wasn't the window itself that she noticed, but what she could see of the outside...

"Sunlight and cherry blossoms," she mused quietly to her mother, winding a long blonde curl around her index finger. Her hair was gathered over her shoulders and thrown over the comforter, most of it slipping over the edge. The thick golden strands shone from the light coming through the open window. Serenity was seated on the side of the bed opposite the window, facing her daughter solemnly and wordlessly. She looked out of place in the cheerful room with her pale dress and faded lavender hair.

"Sakura trees aren't in season..." Usagi noted quietly.

"You're right," her mother acknowledged in the same tone. Usagi stared out the window resolutely, determined not to let her brilliant sapphire eyes meet her mother's sad faded blue gaze.

"I've died again, haven't I?" The blonde kept her sights locked on the window, gesturing to the blood that had stained through the peach blanket around her midsection. She couldn't feel the pain from her battle. Death was the only reason for her numbness. Serenity's chin lowered slightly, but she didn't move from her regal position in the plain wooden hospital chair.

"Yes," the dead queen whispered tiredly, "you have." Both of them stared out the window.

"This room... it's my hospital room. But it's not in the hospital anymore."

"No, it's not." Usagi sighed, and her mother mirrored the motion.

"What do you want from me now, Serenity?" The question came out slightly angered, but Usagi wasn't sorry. She knew that she wouldn't be allowed to rest yet... it was her _own_ damned fault for letting Chaos hurt her enough to kill her before being locked away. At least, that's what she was expecting... She received a similar admonition every time she died.

"You're going to stay dead, now." Usagi turned her wide-eyed gaze upon the faded woman, wondering if she had heard her correctly. She flew upwards in her bed, the peach covering falling to reveal the blood-soaked midsection of her hospital gown. Her bangs flopped down over her forehead over her crescent moon, and she propped herself up with her arms as her bitterness faded and left a slight trace of hope on her face.

"I finally get to rest?" Sapphire eyes were wide and hopeful as she stared at Serenity. As much as she loved life, she _was_ tired, and she really wanted a break before the next time she was reincarnated to save the world.

"Not exactly," the elder woman told her, causing her to deflate slightly. The girl's face turned to exasperation, and she exhaled loudly, falling back onto her pillow with a bounce.

"Of course not." Usagi's statement was bland. Serenity sighed again and shifted in her seat. "So, what now?"

"Enma-Daioh has conferred with Destiny and agreed to allow you to become a Shinigami." Usagi stared at her mother for a moment then pursed her lips tightly turning her head to the window.

"As you wish, Mother." Serenity's head tilted downwards and her bangs shadowed her eyes.

"I didn't ask for this, you know!" The once-great Queen exclaimed suddenly, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. Usagi didn't reply, merely reached out one arm to toy with the edge of a plant given to her by some nameless friend or family member before she died. Sunlight played over the silent scene as the Senshi turned her back on the Princess' mother.

A Week Later

"We're getting a new recruit soon." Tatsumi's glasses glinted in the light as he looked down at the papers he was shifting around on the top of his desk. Tsuzuki, Hisoka, and Watari were lined up in front of his desk, the aforementioned stretched upward as he yawned.

Hisoka shifted to the side and crossed his arms over his chest with a light brush, trying to ignore his oblivious partner as he unknowingly made a show of himself. He ignored the way Tsuzuki's fist rested lightly on his lower lip as he lowered his arms, and ignored the way his own face heated up any time he got within five feet of the amethyst-eyed man.

"That's great, Tatsumi-san," Hisoka said unenthusiastically, "when will he be coming in?" Tatsumi looked down, his voice turning with an unreadable emotion as he answered.

"Actually, it's a she," he told them, "and she should be coming in tomorrow." Watari's gaze snapped up from where he had been staring at his clipboard.

"A girl?" The curly blond haired scientist asked energetically. Tsuzuki scowled. It was inhuman for anyone to be that bouncy that early in the morning. Even he didn't have _that_ particular trait, and he wasn't exactly what you would call human himself.

"It's unusual for the department to have so many female workers at one time," Tsuzuki mumbled to himself, running a hand through his hair.

It was true. Although female workers were just as good as male workers (stronger sometimes in fact) in Meifu, it was less often that females died with all the requirements needed to become Shinigami. Having almost as many females in the department as males was rare.

"Whose partner is she going to be?" Hisoka asked, jade green eyes glittering under his sandy bangs.

"She was going to be replacing Saya and Yuma by herself until we could get her a partner, but they decided at the last moment not to move on. So for now she'll be working as an extra until someone decides to move on." Hisoka's eyes widened.

"Saya and Yuma were going to move on!?!" Tsuzuki exclaimed, eyes wide and hands held immobile in front of him. Hisoka and Watari shared his surprise, but Tatsumi seemed unaffected.

MMM

This is just a prologue, but I'm disappointed... Only three pages, and Watari only said two words the entire time!!! The next chapter will be longer. Grrrr... In any case, tell me what you think. If no one thinks enough of this for me to continue, I won't bother. And, if there's anyone that wants to do it, I need a beta. I get most things on my own, but I'd like someone to read over my stuff before I post it to make sure it all makes sense.


	2. New Beginnings

Chapter two, wooooooooooooooooooooot.

MMM

"It's kinda small, eh?" Usagi noted to the cat perched on her shoulder cheerfully as she stepped through the door into her new apartment. She scratched the back of her head and laughed fitfully as she dropped the last box inside the doorway.

"We won't need much room anyway, Usagi-chan. It's only for one teenage girl and a cat." The dark-furred feline told her blonde charge as they inspected the medium sized room from the front. It was, as Usagi had said, a bit of a tight squeeze, but four rooms wasn't bad for a one person apartment.

"I wonder how the others are doing without us..." The blonde Shinigami mused as Luna jumped off her shoulder and made her way towards the back.

Closing the door with her foot as she picked up the box holding her bathroom amenities, Usagi sighed. As she hadn't needed to be kept to train her Shinigami abilities after her death, she had been dropped off at her new home to put her stuff away herself rather than it being put away for her. Oh well, it was better this way. She would rather put her things away herself than have some stranger have their hands all over them... Ew.

"The bed's rather big for the room," her cat called from the next room over. Usagi looked toward the open door of her bedroom as she made her way into the bathroom and shrugged, although she knew Luna couldn't see it.

"Oooooh!" The blonde squealed, setting the box on the counter beside the sink. "There's a huge bathtub in here!" She ignored the cat's amused huff from the other room as she ran her hand over the faucet, hearts in her eyes.

The dead girl turned as Luna appeared in the doorway. Her long pigtails brushed the floor, and she absentmindedly pushed them over her shoulder as her guardian gave the cat-version of a frown.

"I hardly think such long hair is going to be helpful in your new profession." Luna told her.

Usagi's eyebrows raised as she stared at the cat. "Seriously?" she asked, "I'm actually allowed to get some of it cut off now?" As much as the new Shinigami loved her long hair, it could be a hassle sometimes. She had been wanting to get it shortened before, but the expectations of her friends and family kept it long as much as her own inability to get it cut did.

Luna gave an exasperated sigh as she stood where she had been sitting in the doorway of the bathroom and turned. "It's not like anyone was forcing you to keep it long before." Usagi grinned cheerfully at the cat's back as Luna left to go to the front room.

"Of course not!"

The Next Day

"Well, it's now or never," Usagi told the cat once again perched on her shoulder nervously as they stared up at the huge building in the middle of Meifu.

"Don't be so nervous." Luna admonished her. For a moment there was silence as they stood stock-still amidst the whirling sakura petals of the land of the dead. The brief quiet broke as Usagi sighed and ran her hand through her now shoulder length hair, her cerulean eyes closing for a split second. She put on a cheerful, determined expression and winked at Luna before bounding forward and running up the steps in front of the building.

Usagi paused for a moment to look up at the forbidding doors before sweat-dropping and laughing nervously at herself. After all, she had agreed to become a Shinigami, right?

'Stop thinking, Usagi!' She commanded herself as her thoughts turned bleak. Composing herself, she fell back into the cheerful facade and pushed the doors open.

The blonde Shinigami hummed absentmindedly to herself as she made her way into the building the way she had been ordered to and came upon the door leading to the Summons Bureau. Pushing through it impatiently, Usagi shot a bright, gleaming smile into the room at everyone who had turned to look at her when she entered before spinning confidently into the office labeled 'Konoe'.

The room was medium sized and sparsely furnished. 'Talk about cheap,' she thought with another sweat-drop. Her eyes rolled around the room once before landing and staying on the middle to elderly aged man sitting at the desk in front of and slightly to the left of the door. Considering that the man was the only one in the room and 'old' like one of the men who had helped her move her things told her he would be, she brilliantly deduced that he must have been the one she was looking for- which meant that he must have already read her file.

"Good day, Konoe-san!" the blonde bunny shot smoothly with a 1000-watt smile. Konoe looked slightly blinded. "I'm the new Shinigami, Tsukino Usagi!" She clipped off the end of her sentence with another exclamation point and waited for him to speak.

"Good day, Tsukino-san." The man looked slightly surprised at her quick entrance. Then he was all business. "I trust you've been informed of what your job and place here is." A pause. "Despite your background and status, I do hope you understand that you understand you won't be treated like anything but another Shinigami here." He stared solemnly at her, waiting for her reply. What he didn't expect was the sudden dark smirk he received from his new employee.

"I wouldn't expect any less, sir." For a moment longer the black twinkle shone in her eyes, then it was gone as she snapped her head up and grinned mischievously at Konoe.

"When do I get to meet my new coworkers?" Usagi asked as she stood in front of the old man's desk; Luna perched calmly on her shoulder, forgotten in the conversation.

"Right now." The elder Shinigami said. His chair scraped against the ground as he stood and made his was toward the door, Usagi following behind him.

MMM

Sorry, I know that was a sucky place to end it. No matter how I try, I can't get my chapters to be any longer. ;.; I was going to have this chapter out yesterday, but I was trying to write more and... will you ever forgive me::Puppy dog eyes:: Thanks to my reviewers, by the way. Five for one chapter is pretty good! Anyways, I'll have the next chapter out by Tuesday or Wednesday. Seeya.

-snowflakewriting

-P.S. Less than three pages!! ;.;


	3. Demons or Youma?

Wow. It's been a while. I kinda lost interest in this fic for a while, but now that I've actually got a semi-plot for it, I've got my inspiration back. I'm gonna try to follow through with this fic for as long as I can- after all, it's like, the only YnM crossover in this section. I really need a Beta that will email me a lot and make sure I'm working, someone with good grammar skills who will discuss my ideas for plot with me, who's REALLY interested in the story and not just wanting to do it so that their username will show up in the story.

Also, I'm sure that people will be wondering why Usagi's so OOC in this story. Don't worry, I'm not just mindlessly changing her character without a reason. There is a real reason why she's so dark. Alas, I can't tell you now, but it will show up later and be a huge part of the plot.

That's all I've got to say for now. Without any further ado, I again present chapter three of After Death. Oh yeah! There's a divider like the one below this point showing the point where the old chapter three was changed. It's completely different now, so read on from there.

::INSERTDIVIDERHERELOL::

Smoothing lightly tanned palms over the thighs of her jeans, Usagi followed Konoe out the door. Luna's tail wrapped lazily around her neck underneath her hair, settling on her shoulder as they made their way into the main workroom. The blonde bunny nodded at those they passed as they strode into another office, her former nervousness completely gone. She loved meeting new people- even if they were dead guardians of death that had reasons to hold onto their lives even after death.

The door of the office they were entering also had a name on the door (which our favorite blonde didn't catch as they passed) and was decorated similar to Konoe's. In the center of the room there was a desk at which sat a brown haired man who was staring into the whirl of cherry blossoms outside the window. His glasses flashed as he looked to them, keeping his eyes from view for a moment. When Usagi got a clear shot of the sapphire irises gleaming behind the lenses, however, the urge to clench her fists overcame her. The man's eyes were the exact shade of blue Serenity's had been the moment she forced Usagi to take this job.

"Tatsumi-san," said Konoe, "this is the new Shinigami, Tsukino Usagi-san." He stepped to the side, gesturing to the blonde. Usagi flashed brilliantly white teeth at the secretary, the clenched fists gone long before either of the men had the chance to notice them. "I'll trust you to take her to her temporary quarters and introduce her to her first mission."

The handsome brunet rose and bowed, nodding. "Of course, Konoe-sama." The elderly Shinigami left the room after returning the nod. Both his employees watched the door as it shut, the moment it closed turning to each other.

"Good day, Tsukino-san," Tatsumi spoke smoothly as he rounded the desk, "I am Tatsumi Seiichiro." Usagi stared at his nose to keep herself from looking into his eyes, afraid that her smile would drop if her eyes lighted upon those sapphire rocks again.

"Good day indeed, Tatsumi-san." Her voice was just as effortless; calm and emotionless and perfectly polite. Her gaze drifted to the back of his head as he passed her. Once again, she was being led out of one office into another- this was becoming somewhat tiring.

As they cleared the door, Usagi shifted her shoulder slightly to warn Luna so that she would know to raise her mental shields as the blonde bunny raised her own. They had been told that she would be working with an empath on her first job, and it's not like it was so hard to do in or of itself. After all, you had to have a lot of practice with things like that when working with people like Minako- and considering that they had been doing that for several years before taking on this job (girl and cat considered one Shinigami together), they did have quite a bit of time to work on it.

Usagi drifted several feet behind Tatsumi as she followed him into a side hallway lined with the doors of what could only have been the offices of the normal Shinigami. She ignored the doors and the names on them for the time being as they passed, pulling restlessly at the bottom of her black button-up shirt.

'I wonder what the people here will be like?' The thought drifted through Usagi's mind as the secretary led her and Luna into what would hopefully be the last office they entered this morning.

Several minutes ago

The sandy blond haired Shinigami ignored his partner as the brown haired man chewed quietly on a sweet of some kind. It was quite pointless, however, as after a few moments of going through paperwork that had piled up from their last mission, the gorgeous Shinigami at the other desk looked up and noticed his shorter partner's silence.

"Hey, Hisoka!" The aforementioned turned green eyes upon his friend, neither of them moving from their desks.

"Tsuzuki?" He asked smoothly, his eternally young voice slightly thick from hours of silence.

Across the room, the purple-eyed man stopped as he stared at his younger partner. Hisoka's thick, dark eyelashes hooded smoldering green eyes as the boy turned his gaze from his desktop to Tsuzuki. His face was smooth and unblemished, pale except for the slight pink hue over his nose and upper cheeks.

"You- you want some cake?" Tsuzuki choked out over a gulp, holding out a clean fork to his partner. The younger man stared at him for a moment before, in a moment of total out-of-characterness, he stood up and walked over to the other Shinigami. He reached out silently and took the fork with nimble fingers. Tsuzuki stiffened as Hisoka leaned over the desk, hair falling over his face, to cut off a clean chunk of the cake and place it gingerly in his mouth.

"So, h-how is it?" Tsuzuki squeaked out, face slightly red. Hisoka rested his side against the desk for a moment and thoughtfully swirled the cake in his mouth.

"It's good." He told his partner calmly, staring him in the face with a smirk as he put the fork back into Tsuzuki's hand (which was still open in the air where he had gotten it in the first place).

Gulping again, the purple-eyed JuOhChuOh worker stared at his green-eyed partner's back as the younger man returned to his own desk and sat down. Seconds later, the door opened and the well-known secretary of the Department strode through the door, a blonde head barely poking over his shoulder behind him. 'The new Shinigami?' wondered the sandy-blond haired boy to himself.

"Tsuzuki-san, Kurosaki-kun," the brown-haired man greeted, "this is the new worker, Tsukino Usagi-san, and her cat, Luna-san." Tatsumi twitched a bit at the lost part, Hisoka noticed dully as he watched the girl step from behind the man.

The girl was young, perhaps only a year or two older than Hisoka's sixteen, and the Shinigami could tell from where they sat she would only be an inch or two taller than him. Her hair was a lighter blonde than his sandy blond, and it came down straight to just barely brush her shoulders; cheekbone-length bangs were left to fall over her face, slightly covering her eyes. Those eyes were a sparkling cerulean blue. She wore black, round-toed boots, dark blue jeans, and a tight long-sleeved black button-up shirt left open a few buttons at the collar to reveal the round neck of a plain white t-shirt. An almost black, dark purple cat with a golden crescent moon carved into its head was perched calmly on her shoulder, surveying them with maroon red eyes.

"It's nice to meet you!" Usagi exclaimed, feeling her face began to tire slightly with repetitiveness as she flashed another brilliantly shining smile at her new coworkers. Luna flicked an ear at the blond boy sitting at the other desk, and Usagi shifted on her feet.

"Good morning, Tsukino-san!" Tsuzuki returned, standing and bowing with his own smile as he spoke, "I am Tsuzuki Asato and this is my partner, Kurosaki Hisoka-kun."

The two hyperactive Shinigami nodded cheerfully at each other (Usagi extending a nod to Hisoka) as the blonde bunny stepped back to let Tatsumi speak without looking him in the face.

"Now that we are all acquainted," Tatsumi said expressionlessly, looking from Usagi to Tsuzuki, "I'll tell you about the job you'll be taking on that required the help of Tsukino-san here." He gestured to Usagi. Tsuzuki and Hisoka glanced at each other as Luna and Usagi did the same.

"As the required six months of rest after a large, special-case mission have passed, Konoe-sama has found it time to assign you to another specially requested case."

::EDITEDAFTERTHISPOINT::

"So where are we going?" Tsuzuki asked, picking a pen off the desk in front of him and weaving it through his fingers.

"Tokyo." Usagi and Luna blinked. Hisoka, surprised, turned to Tsuzuki.

"Aren't there Shinigami for Tokyo already?" The sandy blond haired boy asked his tall partner. The amethyst eyed Shinigami turned to Hisoka, removing and replacing the cap from the pen in his hands repeatedly. The clicks echoed through the room. Just as he was about to speak, Tatsumi answered.

"As I said before, the three of you were specifically requested for reasons that you might better understand what's going on there." Tatsumi's glasses flashed as he pushed them up the bridge of his nose.

"What's going on there?" Usagi parroted, blinking owlishly.

"There's been a string of odd monster attacks lately in Tokyo." It took only a split second for the blonde to force the look on complete and total horrified shock off her face. Youma still attacking in Tokyo? But Chaos had been defeated- it was the last thing she could remember, the last thing she had seen-

_a pale face close to her own, her mirror image, smiling a wicked smile, laughing a laugh that said it all; she had already lost-_

Usagi turned a pale face and slightly wide eyes back onto the situation in front of her. No one had noticed her momentarily fading off. She watched as Tsuzuki's eyes widened.

"Monsters? As in demons? Coming through the barrier?" Tsuzuki asked, a scowl on his face. Hisoka narrowed his eyes in thought.

Tatsumi shook his head. "It's not something that we have any confirmed reports on yet. There have been sightings of strange creatures appearing and disappearing near a shallow section of the barrier between worlds somewhere in Tokyo." He paused to shift slightly to the side. As he opened his mouth to speak again, Usagi interrupted.

"So we're not sure yet if they're demons coming through or something else?" Her wide blue eyes reflected in Tatsumi's. A slight tilt to her head betrayed genuine curiosity.

"No," Tatsumi replied. He gave her an unreadable look. The blonde haired girl turned to the window and pressed her thumb to her lips. What to do, what to do... There was a chance that the creatures had been youma sent by some strirrings of Chaos, even though she was sure Chaos was gone- not for good, but for a while, at least. It was much to soon for the evil entity to be up and sending for power. Who else?

::BREAKBREAKBREAK::

"This is a little shabby, isn't it?" Usagi asked with a nervous laugh, surveying the dusty room around her with a raised eyebrow. Surely this wasn't the place Tatsumi-san had booked for their stay in Tokyo?

"It's Tsuzuki's fault." Hisoka said blandly from behind her. Usagi whirled around to question him, but by the time she had stopped he was making his way into the tiny kitchen off the first bedroom. She watched his back disappear behind the wall before turning to face said man with an inquisitive look. The brunet just shrugged and laughed, looking slightly embarrassed.

Usagi made her way across the room to open one of the doors on the opposite wall. It turned out to be the second bedroom- where she would be sleeping. Coincidentally, it was a fairly small room with only one window.

"We're going out for dinner," Hisoka said plainly as he made his way out of the kitchen. Usagi set down her bags on the bed and Luna jumped up next to them.

"A bit dusty, isn't it?" The precocious cat sniffed. Usagi rolled her eyes with a slight smirk before turning back into the other room.

"When are we leaving?" The blonde asked with a grin, feeling oddly cheerful.

::ONEMOREBREAKBABY::

Alllllllllllrighty then. It sure has been a good while since I updated this, hasn't it? Make sure you read the note at the top of the chapter to get what happened- I'm not explaining it again. And feel free to review if you'd like to give me the inspiration to update _within_ ten months from now, lol. In any case, I'll try to get the real next chapter up a little sooner this time, if my muse ever decides to come back.


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